China backs plans for four-sided talks on Ukraine - minister

BEIJING, April 15 (Itar-Tass) - China welcomes the idea of holding a four-sided meeting in Geneva on settling the crisis in Ukraine and regards it as an attempt to create “a multilateral dialogue mechanism,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said after talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the Chinese capital on Tuesday. “We welcome plans of Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine to create a corresponding multilateral dialogue mechanism. This corresponds to our initial wish to make a positive contribution to this process,” the Chinese minister said. “This also corresponds to China’s preparedness to make positive efforts in this process.” Wang Yi said that China had taken “a fair and unbiased attitude” from the onset of the crisis and was “not interested in destabilising the situation in Ukraine”. “China and Russia maintain close contact and co-operation” on Ukrainian events, he said. “Further destabilisation of the situation in that country seems highly undesirable to us.” “We consider it necessary to create favourable conditions to find an appropriate solution to the problem. That is why we have called from the very beginning for a dialogue between all parties, and not confrontation, in order to negotiate a political settlement,” the minister added. Learn more on itar-tass.com